Book Club meets on Monday, May 15 at 7:00 pm to discuss The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloat.

Church Officer

Training and Retreat

Our Church Officers (Elders and Deacons), bless them, are sacrificing a Saturday morning (May 20) for some discussion and training of some logistical and structural issues. One of these has to do with the number and types of committees we have. If you think we don’t have a committee that we need to handle a particular issue, or if you think we have two different groups doing the same kind of work when we could have just one group, please pass your opinion along! And periodically take a moment to thank our Officers for the time and energy they devote to their task.

Fundraiser for the Youth Group will be at Krave on Sunday, May 21 from 6:00-8:00 pm. 15% of the proceeds during that time will be donated to the youth group. Sandwiches, chips, and frozen yogurt will be available for purchase!

Mt. Zion Community Ice Cream Social is

Saturday, June 3 at the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church from 5:00-7:30 pm. Please plan to attend. The recipients this year are Jackson Scharf and Bailey Huddleston.

A Donation Basket is set out at Coffee Fellowship for those who wish to donate. If the coffee host wishes to be reimbursed for Coffee Fellowship, please notify the office or if you have any questions, please call Mark Milnor at 217-358-2691.

Women’s Breakfast in June:

HERBS OF THE BIBLE

at Mari-Mann Herb Garden on

Saturday, June 17 at 11:00 am.

Reservations required –

$10 per person

(to be paid at Mari-Mann's)

Contact the church office at 864-2528 or Jan Nickell at 864-4661 BY MONDAY, JUNE 12. ALL women of the church are welcome!!!!!

Save the Dates...VBS will be July 30-August 3.

More details to come!

Gwen Davis-Millikin University Employee of the Year

Dick Marshall-Millikin women’s 2005 basketball team and coaches inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame

Nick Lewis-awarded American Legion Scholarship

PRAYER CONCERNS OF THE CHURCH:

Our Condolences to: the Clayton and Farrell families upon the loss of Jean Clayton.

Wed MD tells me that grinding of teeth can be caused by sleep apnea, by misaligned teeth, and by anxiety or stress. When in Acts 7 we read about a crowd “grinding their teeth” against Stephen, it seems more likely that they are reacting to what he is saying than that all of them manage to share some sort of tooth or sleep ailment.

We remember Stephen as the first martyr of the church (interestingly, martyr means “witness”). While there has recently, in scholarly circles, been question about the degree to which early Christians were specifically persecuted, we still remember the first few centuries of the Church as the “Age of the Martyrs”. Though force was used in an effort to stamp out early Christianity, the more blood was shed, the greater the energy there was behind the movement.

While in the West we generally consider martyrdom to be a thing of the past (indeed, intentionally seeking it began to be discouraged around the third century), we still today hunger for stories of self-giving sacrifice and passionate belief, and we tend to be unaware of the struggles of churches around the world to freely worship. What are the lesser-known stories of sacrifice and “witness” in the modern day?

Join us this Sunday as we learn of one of the first Deacons of the church, and the first Christian to follow his Lord with the ultimate sacrifice.